Falls Church City schools gifted program

[Anonymous]

I am new to the US, I am trying to educate myself about the school system. My DS was in a gifted program in the UK, he will start first grade in the fall at Falls Church City schools.
Please tell me what you know about their gifted program.
With the move and everything, I don't feel like I want to push for my son to be in the gifted program, I just want to know how it works, how they are assessed, what they do different from the non-gifted etc.
thank you

[Anonymous]

Here is a link to Falls Church City schools Local Plan for the Education of the Gifted:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2J5hRFluyA_YzkxMmYwODUtNzRmMi00MWIzLTg0NmQtN2YzMzQ5ZjNhNzg1/edit?hl=en

[Anonymous]

They have something called TAAP which is a couple hours of pullouts per week...there is not much to it and most people I've talked to (my friend's daughter is in it) think that FCCPS "gifted" education falls short

[Anonymous]

Apparently they are changing it for 1st grade next year but the school has not given out any specific information on why or how it's being changed. I have talked to several parents about this and we have all heard that there will be more in-class differentiation and fewer kids being pulled out...but none of us is sure how all of that will work or if it will work. My sense is that although school enrollment is rapidly increasing, the school system has not been hiring additional TAAP (that's what the gifted program is called) teachers, so perhaps that's why they are trying to shift the focus to the regular classroom.

Also, I wouldn't put much stock in that local plan that a PP posted because it does not seem like the school followed all the steps laid out in that plan this year, maybe due to this mysterious change they are planning.

[Anonymous]

Lame. Fairfax is much better.

[Anonymous]

There is very little to the gifted ed in FCC. Pull outs for a couple of hours a week, at most (usually less). My kid was pulled out last year and they never told us how they choose who gets pulled out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lame. Fairfax is much better.

Assuming you're ok with 32 kids in a class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lame. Fairfax is much better.

Assuming you're ok with 32 kids in a class.

There were 24 kids in my son's FCPS AAP Center class last school year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lame. Fairfax is much better.

Assuming you're ok with 32 kids in a class.

There were 24 kids in my son's FCPS AAP Center class last school year.

FCC proponents always use this tired (and not always true) argument about FCPS class size. They might have some class size issues of their own soon due to exploding enrollment: http://fallschurch.patch.com/groups/schools/p/falls-church-city-schools-enrollment-reaches-all-time-high

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lame. Fairfax is much better.

Assuming you're ok with 32 kids in a class.

There were 24 kids in my son's FCPS AAP Center class last school year.

You were lucky. My child's 3rd grade aap class had 30 kids and an unqualified teacher.

[Anonymous]

I live in FCC and in one of our e-newsletters this year (in conjunction with a budget increase request) we got info saying that FCC class size is larger than FFX and Arlington class size until high school. I don't know how FCC class size compares to AAP class size in particular, but I, too, always hear that small class size is a benefit of FCC and apparently it's not generally true according to FCC's own statistics (at least as a matter of averages; perhaps individual schools in FFX have more students per class but this was a comparison of average class sizes across districts).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lame. Fairfax is much better.

Assuming you're ok with 32 kids in a class.

There were 24 kids in my son's FCPS AAP Center class last school year.

You were lucky. My child's 3rd grade aap class had 30 kids and an unqualified teacher.

I had a 3rd grader in an AAP class of 26 and a 6th grader in an AAP class of 23 last year.

[Anonymous]

FCC: pullout 1x/week, puzzles and projects. If you're looking for differentiated instruction, you won't get it. In FCC kids, TAAP or not, aren't separated by ability until grade 6. Go AAP for true GT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCC: pullout 1x/week, puzzles and projects. If you're looking for differentiated instruction, you won't get it. In FCC kids, TAAP or not, aren't separated by ability until grade 6. Go AAP for true GT.

True, but it's the same or worse in FFX through 2nd grade. AAP center classes start in 3rd grade in FFX. Until then, our experience is that gifted kids in FFX get limited in-class differentiation and very infrequent pull-outs.

[Anonymous]

I was under the impression that there was decent differentiation for kids in the lower grades in FCC. My kid is quite average, so I don't have first hand experience but I thought that kids who were advanced readers were working more on comprehension and more advanced concepts than the other K students.

Not sure how it is in FCPS, but FCC still has a teacher and a assistant teacher for each 1st grade class (in addition to K). So even though we have 21 or 22 kids, at least they have extra coverage. Especially nice when they do the computer lab a few times a week, where half the kids are in the lab, 1/4 with one teacher and 1/4 with the other, for small reading groups.